JESUS CHRIST - RISEN! ASCENDED! GLORIFIED!
written by the Team Rector, Revd. Gary Cregeen
In the Church and among God's
people, at Christmastime, we
celebrate the coming of Christ into
the world in bodily form. We stand
in awe as we think of the infant
Jesus who was God taking on a
human body (incarnation), and
living among the human family. We
are thrilled by His teaching, life and
ministry and astounded that He
should die as a ‘substitute’ for us –
at Easter we celebrate His death in
our place on the Cross and His
victory over death – the
resurrection. However, there is
another significant event in the life
and ministry of Jesus which often
passes without much notice – His
Ascension, which took place forty
days after Easter.
In past years, at least in some
communities, Ascension Day was a
special religious holiday in which
no work was done. The ascension
of Christ has tremendous
theological meaning, as well as
practical application.
So, why is The Ascension significant
and how does this momentous
event relate to us today?
40REASONS FOR THE 40-DAY DELAY
In the biblical account of Jesus’
Ascension one of the first things
that we notice is that there was a
forty day delay between the
resurrection and the ascension
(Acts 1:3). At first glance this can
appear strange – surely Jesus
would want to return to His Father
without delay? However, there
were good reasons for the 40-day
delay. Firstly, there was the need to
present convincing proof that Jesus
was alive following His death on
the Cross. Over a period of forty
days, Jesus showed Himself to be
very much alive by appearing to a
vast group of different people
under divergent circumstances. He
appeared to Mary Magdalene and
another woman in the garden on
the morning of the resurrection;
and to Peter, later on the same
day; and to the two disciples on
their way to the town of Emmaus;
and to the ten disciples (without
Thomas) in the upper room; and to
the eleven disciples (Thomas
present) one week later; and to
seven disciples by the Tiberias Sea;
and to 500 believers in Galilee; and